Benoit (Bennett)

John Odillon Benoit and his wife Angele Deon

Guillaume Benoit was born in Pisiguit (Windsor), Acadie in 1707 and married   Marie-Josephe Gauterot in 1729. He was in Bras d'Or, Ile Royal (Cape Breton) in 1751. Like other Acadians, he left due to the uncertainty of the political climate. His going to Cape Breton instead of P.E.I.resulted in his avoiding the deportation carried out there and elsewhere. Some of his brothers and sisters were not so fortunate.

While in Bras d'Or, Guillaume constructed a saw mill as there was plenty of softwood and hardwood. However there was frequent flooding which hindered the farming of his property. This is probably why he left and moved to Ile Madame in the early 1760s. His family included four sons and two daughters.

His eldest son Pierre, born in 1729, is considered the founder of Tracadie. He married Victoire Dugas at Bras d'Or in 1760. There were no priest to perform the marriage ceremony, so they married by community consent. Then the marriage was re-validated by the first avaiable priest, which was Rev. Charles-Francois Bailly in Arichat, in July of 1771. The couple left Bras d'Or and settled in River Inhabitants for a while.After there marriage validation they moved to Tracadie in 1772. Pierre's brother , Michel and Boniface, settled in the near by Havre au Boucher. The descendants of all three brothers are found throughout Antigonish County and beyond. The fourth brother, Simon, settled in D'Escousse.